January 1, 2010 Sharing God’s Word

Happy New Year! Sharing God’s Word is back. Let us reflect back on 2009 and make the best of 2010!!!

January 1, 2010 Sharing God’s Word

TODAY'S ENCOURAGING WORD

For you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see.

-- Psalm 36:9

THE NEW MAN

Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

-- Ephesians 4:24

When Jesus spoke with Nicodemus, He insisted that no one would ever see the Kingdom of God unless he was "born again" (John 3:3). The Greek phrase used by the Lord, gennethe anothen, literally is "born from above."

Peter used a different word, anagennao, which stressed the need for a second birth: "Not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (1 Peter 1:23). This "new creature" (2 Corinthians 5:17) requires a supernatural work that changes death to life (John 5:24)--literally, "having departed out of death into life."

Although that supernatural change does not produce a new body now, it does contain a pledge of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 5:5) that our mortality will be "swallowed up in life" (2 Corinthians 5:4). It is promised that "we shall all be changed . . . . For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:51-53). That event is yet future. What about now?

Now, we can "reign in life" (Romans 5:17). Now, we are empowered to participate in the "divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world" (2 Peter 1:4). Now, today in this life, "we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37). Our heavenly Father, having determined that we are "to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans 8:29), has made our bodies the "temple" of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), and had granted us access to the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead (Ephesians 1:20).

Rejoice! Our New Man has been given sufficient supernatural resources for "all things that pertain unto life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3).

PRAYER; FOR THE BLESSINGS OF THE PAST YEAR

O God, the beginning and the end of all things, Who art always the same, and Whose years fail not, we now, at the close of another year, kneel in adoration before Thee, and offer Thee our deepest thanks for the fatherly care with which Thou has watched over us during the past, for the many times Thou hast protected us from evils of soul and body, and for the numberless blessings, both temporal and spiritual, which Thou hast showered upon us. May it please Thee to accept the homage of our grateful hearts which we offer Thee in union with the infinite thanksgiving of Thy divine Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who with Thee liveth and reigneth forever and ever. Amen.

Forward to your family and friends!

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God Bless You!